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WHO fears malaria cases in Venezuela could reach 500,000 a year

25 April 2018 - 17:50
Stephanie Nebehay

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito obtains a blood meal from a human host through its pointed proboscis in this undated handout photo. Picture: REUTERS

Geneva — Malaria is spreading rapidly in crisis-hit Venezuela, with more than 406,000 cases in 2017, up about 69% on the previous year — the largest increase worldwide, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Venezuelan migrants fleeing the economic and social crisis are carrying the mosquito-borne disease into Brazil and other parts of Latin America, the UN agency said, urging authorities to provide free screening and treatment regardless of their legal status to avoid further spread.

"It’s in the Americas, it’s not just Venezuela. We’re actually reporting increases in a number of other countries. Venezuela, yes this is a significant concern, malaria is increasing and it’s increasing in a very worrying way," Pedro Alonso, director of WHO’s global malaria programme, told a news briefing.

Venezuela is slipping into hyperinflation, with shortages of food and medicines during a fifth year of recession that President Nicolas Maduro’s government blames on Western hostility and falling oil prices.

Venezuelan officials reported 240,613 malaria cases in 2016, many in the gold-mining state of Bolivar bordering Guyana, with an estimated 280 deaths, according to the WHO.

The 2017 estimate has leapt to 406,000 cases — five times higher than in 2013.

"What we are now seeing is a massive increase, probably reaching close to 500,000 cases per year. These are the largest increases reported anywhere in the world," Alonso said.

A lack of resources and ineffective antimalaria campaigns were to blame, he said. The WHO and the Pan-American Health Organization are working with Venezuelan authorities to address the situation, he added.

"We are seeing indeed because of population movement, cases among Venezuelan migrants appearing in other countries — Brazil certainly. But also in Colombia, in Ecuador and in a number of other places," Alonso said.

"What this calls for is renewed effort by the countries surrounding Venezuela to ensure adequate diagnosis and treatment free for whoever shows up at medical services," he said.

The global campaign against the life-threatening disease has stalled for the first time in a decade, with a reversal of gains made in some countries, the WHO said in November.

Malaria infected about 216-million people in 91 countries in 2016, killing 445,000, with 90% of cases and fatalities in subSaharan Africa, it said.